Data centers utilize high speed optical fiber connectivity to interconnect ports from network elements such as servers, switches, and routers to other network elements. These network elements can be configured for use with a pluggable active optical module that converts a high speed serial electrical signal at a port of the network element to and from an optical signal. Such a pluggable active optical module can be integrated into a connector of a fiber optic cable or can be separate from any cable, which is commonly referred to as a pluggable active optical module (AOM). A pluggable AOM has an electrical connector on one side, for connection with a port of the network element (also referred to herein as a “host device”), and one or more optical adapters on the other side for connection with a fiber optic cable. One example of a pluggable AOM is a small form-factor pluggable (SFP) module.
The mechanical and electrical interface between the network element and a pluggable active optical module is defined by a set of multi-source agreement (MSA) documents. These documents are based on functional requirements defined in IEEE standard 802.3 for Ethernet and T11 (X3T9.3) for Fiber Channel. The MSA defines one pin of the electrical interface as a “module present pin”. The module present pin is used by the network element to detect when a pluggable AOM is present in the respective port.